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Hellbreath (Volt Driver)
The Volt Driver is a metro-made man-portable electromagnetic accelerator (Rail Gun) which uses electromagnetism to fire projectiles at extremely high velocities. The Volt Driver is the electrical counterpart to the Tihar. Miller is the only NPC that uses the Volt Driver, starting in the chapter D6, and is made available to Artyom in the Ranger Pack DLC, which is included for free on Steam. Overview The Volt Driver fires small metallic ball bearings - the same kind of sniper rounds fired by the Tihar - using electromagnetism; the gun's magnetic rails are powered by the charge from a built-in battery, and magnetic coil. Unlike the Tihar, which is pneumatic (uses air pressure) to accomplish the same result (and has to be pumped), the Volt Driver has to be charged using a built-in Charger. This charger is separate from the one that is used to power Artyom's flashlight and Night Vision Goggles. The Tihar and Volt Driver have rather similar performance statistics, and are quite similar in utility. The key differences are that the Volt Driver does more damage when fully-charged (it is one of the strongest weapons overall, frequently bringing down watchers in a single body shot), fires slower, and has better sustainability (lesser-charged rounds from the Volt Driver still do fairly good damage, as opposed to the Tihar, which tends to do poor damage unless pumped up). However, the Tihar has considerably better accuracy (especially over a distance), is silent (the Volt Driver has an extremely loud and distinctive report), and access to a zoom scope (which makes it a very effective sniping tool). In contrast, the Volt Driver lacks any sighting in general except for a laser sight. In general, the Volt Driver is better at closer ranges, whereas the Tihar is significantly better from afar, though both weapons can work just fine at close range (if the Tihar is pumped and uses its fast fire rate) or long range (if the player has the time to aim the Volt Driver) in trained hands. In addition to its high firepower, the Volt Driver can make melee attacks by shocking enemies with the electrified rails at the front of the weapon's barrel. While this consumes energy (and becomes notably less effective the lower the Volt Driver's battery is), it makes for an effective deterrent up-close and is quite good at forcing close-combat enemies back, such as nosalises. At full charge the Volt Driver allows up to five melee attacks before it requires to be charged. It can fire a total of 17 ball bearings from full charge (including super charge) before a recharge is necessary. The Volt Driver is one of four guns (others being the Tihar, revolver, and Hellsing) highly recommended for Ranger Hardcore mode. The laser sight makes up for the loss of the cross-hair, and the Volt Driver uses the same extremely inexpensive ammo the Tihar uses. All in all, it is a toss-up which gun is better; both offer considerable advantages and are worthy guns in every respect. Functionality 350px|rightAs you can see on the gun itself, it has 2 distinctive, boxy prongs on the front of the gun - each of these contains a full set of magnetic strips, tentatively called "rails". A negative electrical current is run down one rail, which goes through the projectile, and back down the other rail. This current sets up a net magnetic field oriented "up", relative to the rails. The projectile's current is "sideways" relative to the rails, and this current interacts with the net magnetic field to produce a "forward" force. Sadly this type of system is currently impossible in a man portable system. The power requirements are too great and the inefficiency of using a ball bearing as a projectile make this a nice dream gun, but alas, only a dream. The technology behind it is sound, however it is simply impractical as an infantry weapon. Obtaining Tactics This gun can effectively be used in any situation except situations that require stealth or where there are many weak enemies (like amoebas). This gun is also highly suggested in Ranger Easy and Ranger Hardcore difficulties as the damage increase makes body shots an instant kill on every thing except librarians. Its laser sight and easily visible magazine capacity negates the HUD removal of hardcore mode. Related Achievements Trivia * You can see a working railgun - one that hasn't been miniaturized like Miller's here. * If Miller is killed while carrying the gun, it will be dropped. The gun then is highlighted, signaling the player that he is able to pick it up, however, you cannot pick the weapon up, since his death almost always means game over. * A Railgun such as the Vold Driver and is not to be confused with a Gauss gun, both types of weapons use electricity to generate electromagnetic fields to accelerate a projectile at extreme velocities but each are designed very differently; a Gauss weapon (otherwise known as "Coilguns") would use Electromagnetic Coils to accelerate a ferromagnetic round while a Railgun uses two parallel rails and a projectile that is a good conductor of electricity to complete an electric circuit (see the Wikipedia links above for a more complete explanations of the differences between the two principles and more detailed methods of operation). * If left idle long enough, Artyom will poke a wire on the weapon, then look at his finger, showing a metal splinter. * There is a Volt Driver on the top of one of the bookcases with the equipment in the ammo exchange kiosk in Riga. * While you can't buy one in-game (all the ones you find are free), it would sell for roughly 241 MGR if it were available in a shop. ** An interesting tip for those 'strapped-for-cash'. You can acquire the first Volt Driver in Lost Tunnels , which can be used to great effect for a large part of the game. Once you reach Armory Station , and the second one appears, you can sell one of the Weapons in exchange for a Duplet and you will receive a lot MGR . You still have the other Volt Driver, as well as the Heavy Automatic Shotgun , if you wish to sell or use that instead. This helps greatly with the Scrooge Achievement.